Absolutely, land estate prices are totally insane in the more gentrified areas. The building itself is nearly irrelevant, see Vancouver rare land plots for measure... or most of the UK. What is in dire need is a fundamental legislation change, where the entirety of the real estate is no longer a market open to speculation, but a fundamental right of the individual and is well proportioned to any income range within a very reasonable 2:1 ratio and this even if it means depricing the already bought properties and cutting corporations out of the building business and of course limiting the amount of houses in possession to a single individual to maybe 2 and eliminate speculators/investors completely.

Exactly... when an uncovered parking space rents for $400-1k/mo it's hard to see how building practices are going to help. Outside of towncenter land costs are lower, but transportation is lacking. Really, it's driven by a combination of growth in high paying tech jobs, restricted geography, and tax/financing structures, as much as, zoning laws or building costs.

The problems are the amount of buildable land in desirable areas and zoning rules preventing maximizing use of said land. In general, there is plenty of buildable land--just not necessarily where people want to live.

Labor is still quite high in most major metros. NorCal is $250/sqft just for labor, $350+ turnkey.

Not in most places.